The Apex series was first seen at CES and falls between their high end Vertex series, which features up to 64 MB of cache, and their low end Solid and Core series. The Vertex 2 series, which will be announced at a later date, will eventually use a RAID 0 controller as well to increase performance.

With read speeds of up to 230 MB/s and write speeds of up to 160 MB/s at half the cost of Intel's X-25M 160GB, OCZ presents a very compelling upgrade solution. Seek times are less than 0.3ms, while the 60GB drive only weighs 77 grams -- the SSD is shock resistant to 1500 Gs.

The only thing that could throw a wrench in the works is random write speed, which has been a problem with MLC chips in the past, even with a properly working controller. That was the reason that OCZ developed the Vertex line specifically with built in cache, which makes a lot of sense considering how low DRAM prices have dropped.

According to OCZ, the Apex series uses an updated JMicron and MLC chips to keep costs down and reach higher capacities.

All Apex Series drives come with a two year warranty. Retail availability is expected by the end of January. More detail on OCZ's Apex product page.

If you consider the chart below, you are paying an extra $50 for 32MB of cache on the 60GB Vertex model while losing RAID. On the 120GB model, the price difference is $100, while on the 250GB model the difference drops down to $40. However, RAIDing two 30GB Vertex drives together will only cost you an extra $10 over a 60GB Vertex drive, if you already have a RAID controller. RAIDing two 60GB Vertex drives will cost an extra $30 over a single 120GB drive.

Size

Apex

Vertex

30 GB

NA

$129

60 GB

$199

$249

120 GB

$370

$469

250 GB

$830

$869

All prices are MSRP.

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JMicron has a poor track record when it comes to controllers. I remember people having trouble with the additional JMicron controller on Gigabyte 965P-DS3 motherboards. Then came the stuttering issue with the first SSD drives. I want to give them a chance because the prices for these drives are very attractive but I would rather pay more for reliability and proper functionality.